Adarsh Housing scam : CBI gives clean chit to Shinde

Mumbai, Sep 20 (): Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has been given a clean chit in Adarsh Housing Society scam by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday.

The Bombay High Court notified that there is no evidence against Shinde which could prove that he has abused his position during his tenure as Maharashtra Chief Minister.

The agency proclaimed saying that the CBI found no reason to name Sushilkumar Shinde as an accused in the controversial Adarsh Housing Society scam. This comes after the Bombay High Court on September 2 asked the Centre, Maharashtra government, CBI, and Adarsh Society to file their response to an appeal seeking Shinde to be added as an accused in the housing society scam case.

Social activist Pravin Wategaonkar filed a petition against Shinde charging him to have the possession of a benami flat in the plush 31-storey high-rise in south Mumbai. The affidavit also claimed that Shinde recommended adding Major N Khankhoje as member of Adarsh society, even though Khankhoje was assumed ineligible as his son. Former MLC Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, in front of the Adarsh commission deposed that Shinde had recommended for including Khankhoje as member of the Adarsh society.

According to a senior CBI official, he declared saying that investigation revealed that there was no family relationship between Khankhoje and Shinde. No record has ever proved that Khankhoje was included on the behest Sushilkumar Shinde, said the affidavit. The statement made by Gidwani to the commission could not produce any evidence regarding Khankhoje’s relationship with Shinde, said senior CBI official K Babu in his affidavit.

The case was adjourned till September 26 by the division bench headed by Justices P V Hardas and P N Deshmukh. The petitioner filed the petition as part of his public interest litigation seeking a probe by Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax departments into the money laundering case.

The Adarsh Housing Society flats were allotted by the government for the families of Kargil War martyrs.